It seems that no matter how many clamps I own, it’s
never enough when it comes time to glue up a number of solid-wood panels.
I’ve toyed with the idea of investing in more clamps, but decided
I could come up with something that would work just as well and cost
a lot less.

My solution is a simple clamping station. I started
with a plywood base that was wider than the panels I needed to glue
up. Then I screwed some cleats to the plywood. The cleats were spaced
so the panel would fit between them with about ¼” gap on
each side. Once I edge-glue the boards that make up the panel, I use
a few clamps to hold them together on one end. Then I position the panel
in my clamping station.

By tapping wood wedges between the cleats and the panel,
I was able to apply enough pressure to hold the pieces firmly while
the glue set up (see Illustration). This simple solution made my clamp
supply go quite a bit further.

This clamping station will work for different-sized
panels as well. If you make your clamping station with a wide enough
plywood base, you can adjust it to the width of different panels by
simply moving the cleats.